Casa 0101 Celebrates 15th AnniversaryPremiere of Comedy: Clean Slate

ByShirley Craig

Celebrating it's 15th 'Quinceanera' anniversary Casa 0101 opens with Clean Start. Clean Start is a comedic play centering around Parker Reed, played brilliantly by Kim Chase, a down-on-her-luck Beverly Hills socialite, and Rosario Rodriguez, her Latina maid who lives in a small house in East Los Angeles. When Reed loses everything due to her husband’s illegal dealings running a ponzi scheme, she is forced to move in with her maid, Rosario, and her superstitious but caring mother and slacker, immature sister who at age 35 is still dreaming of her Quinceanera. The resulting tensions question whether the women, from such divergent backgrounds, can resolve their differences and make a 'clean start' with their lives. Taken straight from recent headlines, the Bernie Madoff scandal, the play flows beautifully with lots of laugh out loud moments.

The five member cast is outstanding particularly Chase, who certainly knows her way around physical comedy by creating a very funny and poignant portrait of a woman who has fallen on very hard times. Reed's character is a challenge but not for the remarkable talents of Chase. Maria Russell as Rosario’s voluptuous unemployed sister develops a a wonderfully raucus character who together with her sister and mother use everything from spells to tolerance to blend themselves together as one family. This is Casa 0101 at it's best and is playing to full houses each performance.

The play is highly commendable for fusing socio-political subject matter with broad uproarious humor verging on satire. It is written by Josefina Lopez (Real Woman Have Curves) and Kathy Fisher (The George Lopez Show) who also directs. Fisher's spirited directorial stage debut moves fast around a delightful set and shows she has equal talent for writing and direction. The scene changes are handled innovatively by two actors dressed up in maid garb, who dust and dance their way through moving props and furniture around on the stage. A lovely entertaining way to change scenery.

We'd love to see this play have a future on television as a sitcom that would have the opportunity to explore our cultural differences in new ways.

Clean Start closes out this weekend so click here to get your tickets. Casa 0101 is a wonderful equity waiver theater, with an art gallery, which will increase your cultural experiences two-fold.

They are Saturday, February 14th at 3:00 p.m. and Sunday, February 15th at 8:00 p.m.

Additional performances added: Friday, February 13th at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, February 14th at 8:00 p.m. Regular performances: Friday, February 13th at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, February 14th at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, February 15th at 5:00 p.m.

Other productions and events, beside Clean Start, to be presented during CASA 0101 Theater’s 15th “Quinceañera” Anniversary Season include: Chicanos, Cholas & Chisme (March 6 – April 12); the World Premiere An L.A. Story written by Emmanuel Deleage and Lorenzo Alfredo, directed by Emmanuel Deleage (May 1 – June 7); the 12th Annual Reel Rasquache Art & Film Festival produced by John Ramirez (May 15 – 17); the musical Little Red, with Book by Anthony Aguilar and Ocar Basulto and Music by Grammy Award-winning band Quetzal, directed by Edward Padilla (June 26 – August 2); the play Placas written by Paul Flores starring Culture Clash’s Ric Salinas (August 14 – September 13); the World Premiere of the play, Drunk Girl written by Josefina López, directed by Claudia Duran (September 25 – October 18); and the musical Eastside Heartbeats written by Tom Waldman and directed by Corky Dominguez (November 6 – December 20). The repertoire is subject to change and revision.

For more information about Casa 0101 click here, or to read our previous indepth interview with Josefina Lopez click here.